Mariah May Opens Up About How She Ended Up With AEW

Former STARDOM star Mariah May appeared on an episode of AEW’s Unrestricted podcast, where she talked about a number of topics including how she ended up with All Elite Wrestling.

May said, โ€œI was in STARDOM, I had just done the big pay-per-view, All Star Grand Queendom and I did commentary on it, which actually got me a big buzz, doing commentary. I had been wrestling there for maybe four or five months, and then AEW reached out and Tony reached out. They enjoyed what I was doing and they wanted me to come to AEW, which I was very surprised. I didnโ€™t think I was ready to go to America, to be on TV, I just didnโ€™t know where it came from. I really wanted to go, but for me, going to STARDOM and Japan, that was something I wanted when I started training and I felt like I was just scratching the surface of what I could do and how I could grow as a performer, especially in ring. I said, โ€˜I really want to come, I canโ€™t believe you guys want me, but I do want to finish off things I want to do in Japan.โ€™ So, I did the 5-Star Grand Prix. That was such an amazing experience and I learned so much and I improved so much, so now when I come to AEW, I have a lot more to offer than I did in May. That was our original conversation and we talked about idea and I was really excited. I was in Japan, doing what I was doing, but AEWโ€ฆit was a lot happening in my mind of, Iโ€™m really excited about this next step, but I wanted to finish off this chapter I had in STARDOM. That was our first chat.โ€

May also talked about how she and the company were able to keep her signing a secret.

May said, โ€œI didnโ€™t tell anybody. I guarded that secret with my life. I saw it leak. I actually woke up in the middle of the night in Japan. At the time it leaked, it was like 5 AM. I remember waking up, picking up my phone, and I never had that many notifications in my life. Some of the girls asked. โ€˜Mariah. Maybe AEW?โ€™ โ€˜Ah, no.โ€™ [Laughs]. Obviously, STARDOM is run by Rossy [Rossy Ogawa], who I have a very good relationship with. I felt bad not telling him, but somebody, Iโ€™m not going to name names, but somebody in the staff does leak stuff about the westerners in particular about where theyโ€™re going to go, what theyโ€™re going to do. I would have a direct conversation with somebody and they would put it on the dirtsheets. I shutdown my merch store, and the exact conversation I had about it ended up on the dirtsheets. I really wanted to be very honest with Rossy because I have a lot of respect for him, but I couldnโ€™t tell him until literally the day I was going to debut. I sent him a message and thanked him and let him know I was going to AEW. He would instantly be like, โ€˜Mariah canโ€™t come back next year, sheโ€™s going to AEW,โ€™ and then it would all leak so I had to really keep it a secret. I had to keep it to myself and then towards then end, I let some of the girls know.โ€

You can check out the complete podcast below.


(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)